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, CHAPTER VIII. 



SADDLING. 



The choice of a lady's side-saddle is a most important 

 matter, and ought not to be treated in any other light ; yet 

 with multitudes of equestrians it seems to be regarded as 

 almost a thing of nought. " Look out for a second-hand 

 saddle for me, there's a dear ! " writes a country lady to a 

 town, friend ; " I am actually going to ride ! "• And away 

 goes the town lady on a search through alley and slum, 

 and comes home the triumphant purchaser of an awful 

 instrument, which gives a sore back to the bearer of it in 

 no time at all, and is then sent to be stuffed, coming back 

 to its owner all the worse for the process, owing to the 

 fact that the stuffing has, in the first instance, been 

 entirely over done. Articles of this description never give 

 any satisfaction, and would be dear if purchased at half-a- 

 crown. Economise as you will in other directions — put up 

 with cheap hats, habits, boots, and gloves, if you cannot 

 really afford any better, — for, odious though they be, they 

 can prove injurious to yourself alone, — but let your saddle 

 be of the best. Go to a first-class maker ; get measured 

 as accurately as a man does for a pair of hunting breeches 

 — tell him that you need the best materials and very best 



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